Ultra-Trace Mercury Analysis
KAR was the first in Michigan to offer this service, installing a PS Analytical Millennium Merlin Ultra-Trace Mercury Analyzer system in a Class 10000 clean room in April 2000, well before regulators required this test! And we continue to be the leader and the most experienced, having analyzed over 12,000 environmental samples, averaging approximately 200 investigative samples per month. Compliant with EPA Protocols 1631, 245.7 and 7474, our Method Detection Limit (MDL) as of 5/3/00 was under 5 parts per trillion. In February of 2001, using our new Class 10,000 clean room, our MDL was 0.01 parts per trillion. That's 3 to 4 orders of magnitude more sensitive than the traditional Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption method, and is sensitive enough to comply with the 0.5 parts per trillion reporting limit that is common on discharge permits.
We highly recommend that KAR perform the sampling for you, due to the likelihood of contaminating the sample. The EPA analytical method suggests that technicians wear a face mask if they have mercury-amalgam dental work, and indication of the sensitivity and ease of sample contamination. Based upon our experience where KAR performed the on-site sampling, there has been outstanding performance with regards to no contamination and false positive problems. However, you can do the sampling yourself. Request our KC200 Sampling SOP with your bottle order. We maintain over 350 of the single-purpose, certified clean Teflon sample containers to accommodate your sampling requirements.
The expense, training, and experience needed to correctly operate an Ultra-Trace Mercury laboratory is substantial. Regulators take mercury very, very seriously. We have seen a single bad data point costing thousands in subsequent resampling and permit changes. You can always find a cheaper laboratory but we don't think it's worth the risk.